


Family

by SoDoRoses (FairyChess)



Series: LAOFT Extras [58]
Category: Cartoon Therapy (Web Series), Sanders Sides (Web Series)
Genre: Fluff, Found Family, Gen, it is how you say cute as all hell, toxic family
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-21
Updated: 2019-08-21
Packaged: 2020-09-23 11:46:53
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,128
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20339596
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/FairyChess/pseuds/SoDoRoses
Summary: Virgil may talk a big game about being the big spooky scary Lord of the Forest, but if he keeps collecting loose humans to adopt someone’s gonna call bullshit.





	Family

**Author's Note:**

> for these prompts over on tumblr:
> 
> “Do Elliot and Virgil ever have any one on one time with eachother? Just hanging out as friends and stuff?” (from [@cadoodlegirl](cadoodlegirl.tumblr.com))
> 
> and
> 
> “So, I literally stopped reading and came over to tell you how much I adore Elliot in the LAOFT verse. They are perfect and I need more content of them and Virgil being friends. So if you’re ever looking for something to write then I am totally asking you for more Elliot being adorable“ (from [@kaytikitty](kaytikitty.tumblr.com))
> 
> AKA Elliot is BABIE you cant change my mind

Okay – to be fair, Elliot probably should have warned him or done something to make sure their dad didn’t come up to their room.

But it wasn’t like it was a scheduled hang out – Virgil had just kind of showed up.

Elliot hadn’t pressed, but they knew Virgil got a little lonely sometimes, especially now that Logan was off at college and Roman and Patton were gone most days. If he was going to show up unannounced because he couldn’t handle the quiet, well – Elliot could relate, and they weren’t going to turn him away.

And then they’d gotten distracted trying to teach him how to play hacky sack – surprisingly difficult, for someone so nimble; mostly the issue was that Virgil kept underestimating his own strength and sending the sack flying across the room – and it had kind of slipped their mind to let their father know.

So that’s how their dad walked in on Elliot laughing at the Lord of the Forest, who had a red bean bag balanced on his elbow, and who immediately looked at Dad with that very particular purple stare that by now Elliot had long forgotten was actually pretty damn intimidating, and not just kind of weird and endearing.

Dad froze, and Virgil tilted his head a little, still staring, and Elliot moved between them.

“Hey, Dad!” they said, plowing forward and pretending there was absolutely nothing strange going on at all.

The thing was, Dad _knew – _everybodyknew. The number of people it took to keep a secret in Wickhills topped out at exactly one. Two, maybe, and only if the two were Logan and Thomas, who occasionally came across as a single two-bodied organism on particularly twinny days.

Between that and the bracelet, it was pretty damn obvious.

But it was only now that Elliot was realizing, more than a year into the game, that Virgil had never been in a room with their father at all.

“Hello, Mr. Pennybacker,” said Virgil, polite and yet somehow distinctly unhappy and oh great, maybe Elliot should not have vented about their Dad’s tacit, barely-tolerating behavior of them to the one friend who might actually do something unpleasant about it.

“Hello-”

Dad floundered, clearly trying to figure out how to properly greet someone who was the Spider Prince, Lord of the Forest, but also his youngest child’s best friend and who looked like he was barely legal to buy beer.

“… Hello,” he repeated awkwardly.

Virgil smiled, too wide and not touching his eyes at all, and Dad paled. Elliot was just a little irritated because Virgil was _definitely_doing it on purpose, so they tossed him an unimpressed look over their shoulder.

“What’s up, Dad?” they said, turning back to him.

“It-”

He glanced between the two of them.

“… It can wait,” he said, sounding a little nervous.

“No, go ahead,” said Virgil, still smiling, “Don’t mind me. I’d love to hear whatever you have to say to them,”

Elliot gave him another dry look.

“It’s a family thing,” said Dad.

“Well, I’m their brother, so…”

He shrugged, and the bottom suddenly dropped out of Elliot’s stomach.

They didn’t quite hear whatever stammered excuse Dad made before bolting from the room. Staring at the empty doorway, they didn’t move for a long moment.

“Elliot?”

Elliot tried to turn, but their feet didn’t quite seem like they wanted to cooperate.

“… Ellie?”

They did manage to turn then, trying to ignore the lump in their throat, and when they finally faced him Virgil was giving them a worried, nervous look.

“What’s wrong?” he said.

Did he even _realize_ what he’d said? Elliot’s first instinct was to ask if he’d meant it, but he _had_ to have meant it, or he wouldn’t have been able to say it at all.

And what did it even mean? It wasn’t the first time Elliot wondered if they weren’t a placeholder for something lost, but-

But they were so different from Greta, and they knew it very well – maybe better than anyone else. Sometimes her echoes whispered, and even shouted on occasion, but brash, loud, painfully stubborn and even vicious – Elliot was none of these things.

And Virgil was different, too. Both in general and with Elliot specifically. Gentler by far – he picked, but never quite so harsh or so much as he did in the memories. Much more protective – sometimes irritatingly so.

So yeah, Elliot wondered sometimes, but never for very long.

Which meant that comment was, in fact, about _Elliot specifically_ and yep, they might be about to cry.

Virgil’s expression went from wary to outright alarmed, crossing the room and hovering with his hands raised hesitantly, so Elliot took the decision out of his hands and wrapped their arms around his ribs and hid their face in his chest.

Virgil only paused for another half-second, before settling his arms around their shoulders and laying his head on top of theirs.

“Ellie, what’s on earth’s wrong?” he said, baffled, “Was it something he said? Do I need to go kick his ass?”

Elliot snickered wetly, squeezing tighter and wiping their face on his shirt. He didn’t seem to mind.

“You’re my best friend,” they said thickly, ignoring the way Virgil went still immediately, “And you’re a really good brother,”

Virgil stayed still.

“And I know this is a happy thing and I’m really sorry for making it it depressing,” they sniffed, which made Virgil tighten his grip, “But I kinda- I kinda got dealt a family that doesn’t, um- doesn’t like, hate me but definitely isn’t- isn’t all that, uh, enthusiastic, about me, and you sorta – you didn’t get dealt me at all, you’re here all on your own and-”

They sniffed once more, and Virgil squeezed a little tighter again, curling his shoulders forward like he was trying to cover them up.

“It just, uh- means a lot, I guess, is what I’m trying to say and I- and I appreciate it,”

Virgil didn’t speak for a good while, but Elliot wasn’t too worried about it; they waited.

“The fact that you…” said Virgil, a little strangled, “… that you think you’ve got to- to appreciate _this_ kinda makes me wanna stab your family members but-”

He patted Elliot on the back of the head, somehow managing to make the move not condescending like Elliot would have found it coming from anyone else.

“But it makes me happy that you feel better for it,” he said quietly, still huddled like he was trying to make Elliot a shelter out of his torso, “I will always be your friend, Elliot Pennybacker,”

“Ditto,” they said, mock-seriously.

And Virgil snorted, his shoulders jumping with it, ruffling their hair and rocking the hug a little - and he did not let go.

**Author's Note:**

> i am also [@tulipscomeinallsortofcolors](tulipscomeinallsortsofcolors.tumblr.com) over on tumblr!


End file.
